A high-profile overseas cooperation forum centered on China's Donghai crystal and press-on nail industries kicked off on September 23 in downtown Milan, Italy, under the theme "Crystal Shines on the World, Commerce Connects the Future." The event carries special significance as it coincides with the tenth anniversary of Donghai County being designated "The World's Crystal Capital" by UNESCO, serving as an invitation to the global fashion industry and a push to integrate Donghai's crystal and nail sectors into the worldwide fashion supply chain.
The Milan gathering combined industry matchmaking, product launches, corporate pitches, and public engagement, establishing professional credibility through a high-level morning session while amplifying brand visibility via an open-to-public afternoon event. During the forum, co-designed limited-edition products featuring Italian designers were unveiled, alongside a global aesthetics co-creation initiative launched with Milan, aiming to foster direct, point-to-point collaboration between Donghai businesses and the European fashion industry.
Underpinning this international showcase are the robust capabilities of Donghai's two signature industries. The crystal sector employs roughly 300,000 people across the county, encompassing over 3,500 processing enterprises. In 2025, crystal sales hit 60.6 billion yuan, up 31.7% year-on-year, with e-commerce transactions reaching 36.7 billion yuan and products exported to more than 30 countries and regions. Although the press-on nail industry only began in 2019, it leveraged the mature e-commerce networks, consumer bases, and logistics systems built by the crystal trade to grow rapidly. Donghai has since become the nation's largest production and sales hub for handmade press-on nails, with annual output exceeding 300 million sets—over 70% of the national total—supporting more than 50,000 jobs and generating 15 billion yuan in 2025 sales. From January to August 2026, the sector achieved 13.3 billion yuan in revenue, a 37.1% increase, with cross-border e-commerce accounting for roughly 40% of that figure, sustaining its strong upward trajectory.
Donghai's path to global markets has been culturally driven from the very beginning. In the press-on nail domain, traditional techniques such as cloisonné, Jingtailan enamel, and blue-and-white porcelain patterns are incorporated into nail designs, including culturally themed collections like "Escape from the British Museum," which have sparked significant buzz on overseas social platforms. In the crystal sector, the nationally recognized intangible cultural heritage of "Donghai Crystal Carving" has been revitalized through the work of master artisans, and a single piece of natural crystal, once creatively designed, can multiply in market value by several times or even dozens of times. This deep fusion of culture and industry has shifted Donghai's products from merely selling raw materials to selling design and brand equity.
The confidence behind this industrial expansion stems from a progressively sophisticated cross-border e-commerce ecosystem. Donghai has positioned cross-border e-commerce as the core engine of its foreign trade transformation, gathering over 5,000 such enterprises and building a complete infrastructure comprising an e-commerce industrial park, bonded supervision warehouses, dedicated logistics routes, and integrated service platforms. In 2025, cross-border transactions for press-on nails reached approximately 6 billion yuan, representing 40% of the sector's total sales. In terms of digital commerce foundations, Donghai began seizing digital economy opportunities as early as 2016, establishing the Crystal City E-commerce Innovation Center along with livestream bases for platforms like Douyin, Kuaishou, and Taobao, creating a well-rounded e-commerce environment. For nails, the county pioneered a model combining "press-on nail supermarkets, cross-border livestreaming, and incubation training," deepening partnerships with platforms such as Amazon, TikTok, TEMU, and Alibaba International Station, and by 2025, had trained over 2,000 cross-border livestream hosts.
Opening up logistics channels has proven especially critical. In August 2026, Donghai's cross-border e-commerce supervision warehouse completed its first air-cargo export operation under the 9610 customs declaration model, officially activating an air freight corridor. Previously, exports relied mainly on sea transport, which struggled to meet the "high-frequency, small-batch, time-sensitive" demands of lightweight items like crystal goods and press-on nails. The new route has effectively resolved pain points such as cargo consolidation difficulties and unstable booking availability, with export volumes through the Donghai warehouse rising roughly 67% year-on-year. Donghai has also built a full value chain covering raw material sourcing, design and processing, and product sales, established the cross-border supervision warehouse, and streamlined the 9610 declaration process, enabling deliveries to major markets like Europe and the United States within three to five days.
On the service front, Donghai has developed the "Jingmaotong" foreign trade digital service platform, offering one-stop cross-border e-commerce solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises, and advanced the "one-stop cross-border e-commerce reform" to fully operationalize the 9610, 9710, and 9810 customs declaration modes. The Jiangsu Council for the Promotion of International Trade has also hosted "Cross-border E-commerce Empowering Industrial Belts" events in Donghai, continuously deepening the integrated development of the "industrial belt + cross-border e-commerce + overseas warehouse" model.
This small county in northern Jiangsu is accelerating its connections to global networks, with corporate internationalization advancing rapidly. In 2026, the Donghai Artificial Intelligence OPC Innovation Community was officially launched, targeting the crystal, press-on nail, and silicon materials sectors, and constructing a six-in-one industrial ecosystem encompassing design empowerment, content marketing, computing power support, raw material supply, comprehensive carriers, and digital infrastructure. This framework provides strong backing for the digital, branded, and international transformation of local industries. A number of homegrown enterprises now employ AI design tools to enhance production, compressing the cycle from trend detection to mass production of hit products to just three days.
Brand development is also gaining momentum. Donghai has cultivated over ten mid-to-high-end press-on nail brands, including Tu Hua and Jing Yiyi, establishing a tiered corporate brand matrix, while actively pursuing registration of the collective trademark "Donghai Press-on Nails" and preparing to create the title of "World Capital of Handmade Press-on Nails." The "Jingyun Fuli · Donghai Crystal Official Flagship Store," the first brick-and-mortar outlet directly operated by the Crystal Industry Group, has commenced operations, carrying the significant mission of elevating brand value through cultural heritage.
Throughout this year, Donghai has made strategic moves in logistics. Following the launch of direct air transport to Nanjing, the county is benchmarking against the advanced practices of the Yiwu supervision center, exploring regulatory innovations such as "inspect before loading" and mixed-mode cargo consolidation. The goal is to establish a regional export service hub characterized by "goods collected in northern Jiangsu, customs clearance in Lianyungang, and global distribution," transforming Donghai from a mere production site into a regional cross-border export consolidation center.
Looking toward the 15th Five-Year Plan period, Donghai has set an ambitious "100-billion-yuan capacity" target, aiming for a regional GDP exceeding 120 billion yuan by the end of 2030. Within the crystal and press-on nail industries specifically, the county plans to optimize the functions of the "Jingmaotong" foreign trade service platform, expand group exports of premium products like crystal jewelry and press-on nails, and drive "Made in Donghai" to connect with global markets. It also intends to accelerate the construction of comprehensive crystal processing service bases and elevate the capacity of the "one center, two bases" initiative for press-on nails. The nail industry is striving to surpass 20 billion yuan in sales by 2026, showcasing the vitality of China's beauty economy to the world.
From a county seat in northern Jiangsu to Milan Fashion Week, Donghai's crystal and press-on nail sectors, propelled by the dual engines of industry and culture, are stepping onto the global stage with growing confidence.